Blackstone has shelved Project Eclipse, a $3 billion securitization of about 700 fund interests, Bloomberg reported. Buyers objected to the leverage and to the age of the funds. Nearly a quarter of them were 15 years old or more. M-One Capital, meanwhile, filed a vehicle named Arabica with Lazard placing it, and Peugeot Invest said the last tranche of its 35-fund sale arrives in December. So the oldest stakes now cost their holders something to turn into cash.

The tape

• Blackstone has put Project Eclipse, a $3 billion collateralized fund obligation on about 700 fund interests, on hold in its current form, Bloomberg reported.
• Peugeot Invest received €89 million at the end of March as the second tranche of the 35 funds it sold to Committed Advisors in 2025. The last tranche, $48 million and €32 million, is due in December.
• US public pensions committed $100.9 billion to private equity in 2025, 24% more than in 2024, and $31.9 billion in the first half of 2026, in Nasdaq eVestment's count.
• Unlimited Funds, run by former Bridgewater deputy chief investment officer Bob Elliott, filed on 16 September to list Unlimited Unicorn Opportunities Fund I on the New York Stock Exchange, a fund that buys departing employees' shares in late-stage companies.
• M-One Capital, the Omaha firm formerly called McCarthy Capital, filed on Monday for M-One Capital Arabica Fund and a parallel vehicle, with Lazard placing them and nothing raised yet.
• AEA Investors filed on Tuesday for AEA OMN CF, a continuation fund of indefinite size with Evercore as placement agent and nothing raised yet.
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Eclipse's buyers refused leverage on 20-year-old funds

Blackstone has stopped marketing Project Eclipse in its current form, Bloomberg reported, relayed by Private Equity Wire on Thursday. The $3 billion collateralized fund obligation would have pooled about 700 fund interests from one of Strategic Partners' older funds, with bonds and an equity tranche issued against them. Prospective investors objected to the leverage and to the age of the funds. Age was the sticking point, because 8% of the holdings were at least 20 years old and another 15% were between 15 and 20. The senior tranche, meanwhile, was offered at about 7.5% and parts of the junior debt at up to 12%. Blackstone has not ruled out restructuring the deal and bringing it back, though.

Source: Bloomberg, relayed by Private Equity Wire, 24 September 2026.

The deal had been in trouble since the summer, while the rest of the market kept printing. On 12 August Bloomberg reported that Blackstone was weighing abandoning it because nobody would take the equity tranche, read here on 14 August. The firm had even offered to keep the whole first-loss slice itself, briefs.co wrote. Meanwhile Franklin Templeton's Lexington closed Structured Solutions 2026 at $1.5 billion in August, and Evercore expects new CFO volume to more than double this year to $30 billion.

A securitization works when the collateral pays out on a schedule the bonds can live with. A fund that is 20 years old has already distributed most of what it ever will, so what is left is a handful of companies the sponsor could not sell. Their cash arrives when a sale finally happens. So the bond buyers asked for less debt against that collateral, and the equity buyers asked for a price Blackstone did not want to pay. An LP selling its own tail-end funds this autumn therefore sells to a buyer that pays from its own fund. The bond market has just said what 20-year-old stakes will support. Keeping the equity in-house would have answered the buyers' objection, and then, in the words of the people Bloomberg spoke to, "the economics of the transaction would not have worked".

Two sponsors filed vehicles before any announcement

M-One Capital, the Omaha firm known until 2025 as McCarthy Capital, has started raising a vehicle named after a coffee bean. M-One Capital Arabica Fund and a parallel Fund-A filed with the SEC on Monday from the firm's Dodge Street office, of indefinite size and with nothing raised yet. Lazard is the placement agent, and its fee is offset dollar for dollar against the management fee. The officers are Patrick Duffy, the firm's president, and three of its partners.

The coffee is in the firm's own portfolio. McCarthy's sixth fund, a 2016 vintage in the firm's presentation to Nebraska's investment council, bought into Scooter's Coffee in March 2018. The Omaha drive-through chain had more than 180 stores then and more than 850 by July 2025. That month Reuters reported that it was exploring a sale at close to $1 billion with Bank of America and Baird. So Arabica is most probably a continuation vehicle for M-One's Scooter's stake, eleven years into the fund that holds it. The honest alternative is a single-asset vehicle that brings new money into the chain while Fund VI stays, and nothing has been announced officially yet.

Source: SEC, Form D of M-One Capital Arabica Fund, L.P., 21 September 2026, items 1, 2, 12 and 13.

The second filing came the day after from AEA Investors, the New York mid-market firm. AEA OMN CF filed on Tuesday from 520 Madison Avenue with Evercore as placement agent, of indefinite size and with nothing raised yet. AEA has used the label before, because AEA Growth CF filed in July 2024 for its growth team. The three letters in the middle of the new name do not say which company it holds. So this is a continuation fund for an AEA company still to be named, and nothing has been announced officially yet.

Peugeot Invest collects its 35-fund sale over eighteen months

Peugeot Invest is still being paid for the 35 funds it sold last year, and the last tranche comes in December. The Peugeot family's listed holding said in its half-year release on Wednesday that it received €55 million in 2025 and €89 million at the end of March. The third and final payment, $48 million and €32 million, is due in December 2026. It had sold the funds to Committed Advisors in May 2025 for about €227 million, €94 million for the euro funds and $149 million for the dollar funds. Three quarters of them were 2019 vintages or older, and the release of May 2025 said the price would come in three instalments over eighteen months.

Source: Peugeot Invest, 19 May 2025 and half-year release of 23 September 2026.

A deferred payment lets the buyer fund part of the purchase from the portfolio's own distributions. The money it owes in month eighteen has been coming back in the meantime. The seller, in turn, books the headline price on day one and waits for the cash. So a seller that needs the money now takes a discount instead, and a seller that does not takes the schedule. Peugeot Invest is in the second camp, because the funds it kept were worth €1,251 million at 30 June, 30% of its gross assets. Those funds called €60 million in the half against €31 million distributed. They returned 13.2%, driven by the Valor Equity Partners funds that hold SpaceX.

On the radar

• Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October, Singapore. SuperReturn Asia has its secondaries session on the Tuesday at 12:25, the first regional stage since KAUST's and KIC's sales became public.
• Tuesday 29 September, New York. ILPA's Continuation Vehicles for the Limited Partner course meets the day before the quarter-end mark that every autumn sale is priced on.
• Wednesday 30 September, 1pm, Guernsey. The deadline for Partners Group Private Equity's shareholders to elect realisation shares. The EGM follows on 7 October.
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